December 2002 Archives
"Some bands captivate an audience, publicly telling secrets through music. As with most secrets, everyone wants to hear what they have to say. Every show is a litmus test for the audience and inevitably they pass because the sound is so intriguing, wild, and unpredictable. Haas referred to Jacob Fred's relationship with the audience as one of "balance between being empty and bringing energy." The emptiness allows each musician to let "whatever's going on in the room come out of us," but the energy brought by each performer offers crowd members a chance to tune in to the Odyssey vibe. "
While looking through my referrers, I found someone got here via a Google search for '"jacob fred jazz odyssey" sucks'. Now, of course, they don't, but I followed the link to see what sort of things would come up on such a search, and I found this nice article about them instead, and at the top of the list no less. I thought I'd share it with you.
"Now in its third year, the FMC Policy Summit is a forum for musicians, lawyers, academics, policymakers and music industry executives to come together to discuss and debate some of the most contentious issues surrounding digital technology, artists’ rights and the current state of the music industry. Last year’s two-day Policy Summit included keynote speeches from Representative Rick Boucher, Representative John Conyers, California State Senator Kevin Murray, and Napster CEO Konrad Hilbers. Over eighty panelists also participated including Hilary Rosen (RIAA), Amy Ray (Indigo Girls), Ian MacKaye (Fugazi), Jonathan Tasini (National Writers Union), Mark Cuban (Broadcast.com/Dallas Mavericks), Marybeth Peters (US Copyright Office), Peter Jaszi (Professor, American University Washington College of Law), John Simson (SoundExchange), Danny Goldberg (Artemis Records), and Jim Griffin (CEO, Cherry Lane Digital), just to name a few."
The Future of Music Coalition is an attempt to address some of the issues emerging at the intersection of music and technology. Their Manifesto outlines their three areas of concern:
-
Piracy / Technological Innovation
The Future of Music Organization is founded on the belief that creation is valuable and should be compensated. Here we are speaking of both musical creation and technological creation. By drawing together advocates for musicians' rights and innovators in Internet technology, we will work to move the discussion away from the narrow privacy vs. piracy discussions that dominate the general media, toward practical solutions leveraging the strengths of digital download technology on behalf of the artists. Our work will encourage the development of innovative Internet music business models to guard the value of musicians' labor and ensure that artists will continue to be paid for their compositions and performances despite drastic changes in methods of distribution.
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The RIAA's Conflict of Interest
The Recording Industry Association of America is a special interest group that claims from time to time to lobby on behalf of musicians, but it is funded by, and represents the interests of, the major record companies - the same corporations traditionally known to be the primary exploiters of the musicians that the RIAA claims to represent. The RIAA simply cannot be trusted to serve two distinct masters - the record companies and the artists. An important example is the "work for hire" issue: the RIAA pushed legislation that gives major labels the right to own musicians' master tapes in perpetuity, changing an existing law that allowed some artists to regain the rights to their masters after 35 years. By advocating for this language, even while claiming to have the artists' interests at heart, the RIAA made it clear that it is compromised, and cannot be left to its own devices in the policy-making arena.
In a more frightening development, the RIAA is attempting to step beyond its traditional lobbying role in order to enter the music-licensing business by collecting and distributing royalties from webcasts. While there is clearly a need for an organization to manage these royalties (webcasting royalties could result in more money than currently collected by BMI and ASCAP combined), the Future of Music has no confidence in the RIAA's ability to represent the voice of musicians or to collect and distribute artists' royalties from the major labels who fund the RIAA.
The Future of Music therefore advocates for an impartial and accountable organization to guard the value of artists' webcasting royalties. By standing in opposition to the RIAA we hope to give voice to the concerns of musicians who are simply not represented by an organization whose core mission is promotion and protection of the record industry agenda.
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SDMI
The Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), spearheaded by the RIAA, was an attempt to pull together a limited group of powerful consumer electronics manufacturers; PC manufacturers, and record labels to develop a copyright-enabled alternative to the MP3 format. It is viewed by many as a misguided and desperate scramble by those in the existing music business monopoly to maintain their stranglehold on the channels of distribution through the application of a standardized encryption or watermarking program.
As with most technologies that are conceived and developed in a no-feedback vacuum, without the desires of potential consumers in mind (not to mention an understanding of the limits of encryption technology), it was destined to fail. As much has been said by Executive Director Leonard Chiariglione, whose comments at the May 2000 SDMI meetings revealed a combination of infighting between competing business interests and fatal flaws in the group's structure, which requires all decisions to be made by consensus. While SDMI members bicker and veto proposals based on the personal financial interests of their multi-national corporations, consumers are presented with narrow, confusing options that alienate them and thus do more to promote piracy, which becomes the only viable mode of digital transfer for the great majority of the world's existing music.
The Future of Music believes SDMI is a perfect example of what happens when industry attempts to legislate technological advances without the crucial input of musicians and programmers.
Their upcoming Policy Summit in Washington DC will feature keynote speeches by Senator Russ Feingold and Representative Howard Berman and panels on a host of music/technology issues. Panelists include (but are not limited to) John Perry Barlow, Doug E Fresh, Ira Glass, John Flansburgh, Joan Jett, Vernon Reid, Patti Smith, and most importantly Mike Dreese - the CEO and co-founder of my favorite music store ever!
Here's what you can do to help.
"viacreativecommons"
Eric Hoffer. "The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not." [Quotes of the Day]
All About Jazz interviews 2 of my favorite pianists:
- Uri Caine - who discusses jazz and growing up in his hometown of Philadelphia. Some of my favorite of his works are those reinterpreting Mahler: Urlicht/Primal Light (which, incidentally, I was introduced to by my college roomate and new-found blogger, John-Paul Pagano) and the 2-cd live performance of the same. He's done similar to selected works of Wagner, Bach and Schumann. That being said, his more straight ahead jazz work, such as Blue Wail, and his recent Brazilian cd, Rio (recorded on the streets of Rio with local musicians) are also fantastic.
- Matthew Shipp - who talks about his latest role as producer and curator of the Thirsty Ear Blue Series, which focuses on the directions jazz is taking today, most recently focusing on the combination of turntablism and jazz thats emerged in the past few years in the works of folks like DJ Logic, and DJ Spooky. There's a great impromptu discussion between Shipp and DJ Spooky in the Spring 2002 edition of Signal to Noise. It's available online, but you should buy a subscription to support an unbelievably good music magazine!
"Point two: One of the most important rules of foreign policy is not to let yourself get pushed around. An even more important rule, though, is not to make threats or issue ultimatums that you either can't or won't follow through on. That not only makes you look weak. It also makes you into an object of contempt. That's just what the administration has done in this case.
The White House called the Clinton policy craven and dishonorable. That policy was essentially to pay the North Koreans to behave and hope that in the medium-term a better solution -- perhaps a soft landing in the North -- would arise. Not pretty certainly, but it was a difficult situation.
The Bushies told the North Koreans that they either had to shape up or we'd take them out. Now the North Koreans have called our bluff. And the administration -- as signalled by Powell's comments over the weekend -- has caved, enunciating a policy which is now substantially more dovish than the Clinton policy.
Tough talk sounds great until your opponent calls your bluff and everybody sees there's nothing behind the trash talk. Then you look foolish. That's where we are right now with North Korea. As Nelson says, no doubt the NKs are the bad guys. And this is an extremely complex problem with no easy solutions. But the Bush administration has pursued a keystone cops policy on the Korean Peninsula for two years now, mixing think-tank braggadocio with feckless inconstancy. Now we're all going to pay the price. "
I especially enjoyed the contrast of Rumsfeld assuring the North Koreans that we could take them out if we really really had to and then 7 days later Powell claiming this is not a crisis and it can be resolved diplomatically. I think it paints a nice portrait of this Administration's internal confusion.
North Korea is actually doing everything Bush is using to justify war with Iraq, and they're bragging about it, daring us to do something. The difference is, we're fairly certain North Korea isn't lying, so nothing is done about it. North Korea is a prime source of weapon proliferation, probably has nuclear capabilities, and is telling us not only that they plan to continue making weapons, they're going to sell them to whoever they want to, and they can do it within 30 days. Its only a matter of time before North Korea ships a nuke to Saddam.
And all of this is a direct reaction to Bush's national security strategy, which while sounding nice, and keeping the neo-con hawks in the background happy, obviously was a bit premature. Oops.
I somehow missed a long thread on Metafilter about this.
"A Democratic lawmaker said Sunday he will introduce a bill in the next session of Congress to make military service mandatory.
Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, said such legislation could make members of Congress more reluctant to authorize military action.
"I'm going to introduce legislation to have universal military service to let everyone have an opportunity to defend the free world against the threats coming to us," Rangel said on CNN's "Late Edition."
"I'm talking about mandatory service.""
Hmmm, going to have to keep an eye on this one. I don't imagine it will get too far.
"The Information Awareness Office finally seems to have picked up on the fact that its logo, noted in these parts a few months back, was -- to put it succinctly -- freaking people out. The IAO site now features a more subdued, corporate insignia, though compulsive Illuminati-watchers will note that it still includes a pyramid."
...
"Fifteen years after withdrawing from his second presidential bid and quietly settling back into private law practice, Gary Hart has found his voice again.
Frustrated because people didn't listen to his warnings about terrorist attacks and worried about the future of the nation, Hart has done nothing to turn away attention generated when he hinted that he might seek the Democratic presidential nomination again.
But he declined to say when he would make a decision."
More speculation on Hart's plans. He would seem to me to be a natural choice for these times we're living in. He's an expert on security, homeland defense, and terrorism and he's got prior nationally spotlighted political experience - both positive and negative - from which to draw.
More importantly, he's a Democrat from Colorado. How many of those are in the national political scene outside the left-leaning bubbles of the People's Republic of Boulder and downtown Denver? ;)
"viapoliticalwire"
"GWEN IFILL: Senator Graham, are there elements in this report, which are classified that Americans should know about but can't?
SEN. BOB GRAHAM: Yes, going back to your question about what was the greatest surprise. I agree with what Senator Shelby said the degree to which agencies were not communicating was certainly a surprise but also I was surprised at the evidence that there were foreign governments involved in facilitating the activities of at least some of the terrorists in the United States.
I am stunned that we have not done a better job of pursuing that to determine if other terrorists received similar support and, even more important, if the infrastructure of a foreign government assisting terrorists still exists for the current generation of terrorists who are here planning the next plots.
To me that is an extremely significant issue and most of that information is classified, I think overly-classified. I believe the American people should know the extent of the challenge that we face in terms of foreign government involvement. That would motivate the government to take action.
GWEN IFILL: Are you suggesting that you are convinced that there was a state sponsor behind 9/11?
SEN. BOB GRAHAM: I think there is very compelling evidence that at least some of the terrorists were assisted not just in financing -- although that was part of it -- by a sovereign foreign government and that we have been derelict in our duty to track that down, make the further case, or find the evidence that would indicate that that is not true and we can look for other reasons why the terrorists were able to function so effectively in the United States.
GWEN IFILL: Do you think that will ever become public, which countries you're talking about?
SEN. BOB GRAHAM: It will become public at some point when it's turned over to the archives, but that's 20 or 30 years from now. And, we need to have this information now because it's relevant to the threat that the people of the United States are facing today."
Somehow this has been totally missed by the media. This is from an interview on December 11th, and Senator Graham admits that there is evidence that a foreign government at the very least assisted in the 9/11 attacks. Its obviously not Iraq, since there's no way this information would have been classified if that were the case. Why hasn't this story spread beyond PBS (and the blogosphere of course)?
Who ever could it be?
"viainstapundit"
"Though still publicly coy about whether he'll run, Hart is preparing a series of policy speeches that he will deliver at universities across the country beginning in January. The first will be on national security, the second on economic policy, the third on foreign affairs, and so on. (The itinerary is not yet set, but Smith, who's working on the logistics, suggests that somewhere in Iowa would be a logical first stop.) Hart says public reaction to these speeches will help him decide whether the climate is right for a run. "I want to see if people think they make any sense. And, if the speeches do receive any press attention and have been critiqued, maybe they will have the effect of getting some other candidates to respond." But, Polkinghorn and Smith's infectious enthusiasm notwithstanding, says Hart, "I have no need to be in office. I am not a career politician. People say my career ended in '87, but I didn't see it as a career. I saw it as public service. I don't need to be president. I thought I had something to offer in the '80s--and maybe I have something to offer in the new century."
Polkinghorn and Smith are certainly convinced. The moment Hart decides to go for the gold (and possibly before) Smith will drop out of Harvard and head for Denver. Polkinghorn is more ambivalent about leaving med school but clearly hates the idea of missing the action. Hart says he has counseled (and will continue to counsel) the young men against discontinuing their studies. "I've said, 'Don't do that. It's not chopped liver to be at Harvard Medical School.'" Still, he hedges, "What an opportunity for them to learn American politics up close and personal." He points to the grand times he had as a volunteer for John Kennedy's and Bobby Kennedy's presidential campaigns and as director of George McGovern's 1972 White House bid."
A good article on TNR Online about the 2 young folks behind the push to get Colorado's own Gary Hart back in the national political spotlight and into another run for the Presidency.
"viainstapundit"
"Clearly, the best solution would be for Americans to realize the danger of SUVs and simply stop buying them. Social pressure can be a powerful determinant on car choices, as seen in Japan, the one country where SUVs have not caught on because of cultural checks that emphasize the good of the community over that of the individual. There are signs that perhaps public sentiment is beginning to shift against SUV drivers here, too, as activists have begun to leave nasty flyers on SUV windshields berating drivers for fouling the environment and other offenses. But for a true reckoning to take place, image-obsessed Americans will need to fully understand the SUV's true dangers--including to themselves--before they will willingly abandon it to the junkyard. Spreading that message against the nation's biggest advertiser--the auto industry--will be tough work. Drivers can only hope that Bradsher's book will cut through the chatter. "
The Washington Monthly reviews the New York Times' Detroit bureau chief, Keith Bradsher's new book, "High and Mighty: SUVs -- The World's Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way."
"viaalternet"
"Welcome to the world's first digital news archive. Now you are here you can preview items from the entire 3500 hour British Pathe Film Archive which covers news, sport, social history and entertainment from 1896 to 1970. You can also license higher resolution copies of the same items for PowerPoint Presentations and Web Publishing."
"Don't believe the naysayers: This was a great year in film, from the sexy-sweet "Secretary" to the nasty musical "Chicago.""
And Stephanie Zacharek has a list as well. I won't transcribe it all here, as there's nothing that wasn't included in Charles Taylor's list, but she does provide some interesting comments, as well as her honorable mentions.
"A year of erotic masterpieces and exhilarating amorality proves good movies still get made, even if they don't always get seen."
Salon's Charles Taylor offers up his Top 16 films of 2002:
Far From Heaven, Secretary, 24-Hour Party People and Punch-Drunk Love were already on my list of movies to see (once they're out on DVD, I don't like going to movies, but thats a whole other story) and now there's a few more that will have to be added.
"It never fails. The year in technology always stacks up like this: There's the bottom, which is packed with half-baked ideas and badly conceived devices. There's the middle, where it's so crowded you'll find only room for improvement. And then there's the top, where it's lonely and there's only room for one - or in this case, 100. Find out what CNET editors picked as the crème de la crème of tech in 2002."
I confess, I'm a gadget nerd. Shiny things with buttons make me happy. There's a lot of shiny things with buttons in this article.
"viagizmodo"
"Joe Strummer, whose raw voice and fervent songs for the Clash showed the punk generation that rebellion could be not just personal but also political, died of a heart attack on Sunday at his farmhouse in Broomfield, Somerset, in southwestern England, his recording company said. He was 50. "
R.I.P.
I always liked The Clash. They struck me as more honest than most punk bands, who were all about setting themselves apart, while The Clash was more positive and hopeful, while still retaining an edge.
For those that care, I'm off for the Holidays this week, so I'm not likely to be posting much of anything.
"It's really not that complicated. To make a word plural, you simply add an "s" (ropes). To make the word possessive, you add an apostrophe and an "s" (rope's). To make a plural noun ending in "s" possessive, add only the apostrophe (ropes', states' rights, the girls' toys, etc.). Of course, apostrophes are also used for contractions such as can't, he's, won't and it's. "
Arianna's pissed about improper apostrophication and she's not gonna take it anymore! I thought this appropriate due to recent chastisings I've taken over the improper use of the little bugger.
I'll have to print a cheat-sheet.
"viameta"
"On Monday, Creative Commons will release its collection of free, machine-readable licenses. The idea is to give copyright holders another way to get the word out that their works are free for copying and other uses under specific conditions. "
A good article in Wired explaining the Creative Commons project further.
"Creative Commons's first project, in December 2002, was the release of a set of copyright licenses free for public use. Taking inspiration in part from the Free Software Foundation's GNU General Public License (GNU GPL), Creative Commons has developed a Web application that helps people dedicate their creative works to the public domain -- or retain their copyright while licensing them as free for certain uses, on certain conditions. Unlike the GNU GPL, Creative Commons licenses are not be designed for software, but rather for other kinds of creative works: websites, scholarship, music, film, photography, literature, courseware, etc. We hope to build upon and complement the work of others who have created public licenses for a variety of creative works.
Our aim is not only to increase the sum of raw source material online, but also to make access to that material cheaper and easier. To this end, we have also developed metadata that can be used to associate creative works with their public domain or license status in a machine-readable way. We hope this will enable people to use the our search application and other online applications to find, for example, photographs that are free to use provided that the original photographer is credited, or songs that may be copied, distributed, or sampled with no restrictions whatsoever. We hope that the ease of use fostered by machine- readable licenses will further reduce barriers to creativity."
A GPL for the non-computer world.
"Russian software developer ElcomSoft has been cleared of charges that it illegally created a program to disable encryption on Adobe e-books.
The jury verdict, announced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, concludes the first criminal trial of a company accused of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a 1998 federal statute that protects copyrights on electronic content."
The first criminal trial test of the DMCA is over, and the Act took a beating.
"Web site was established to provide information about a proposed Settlement of lawsuits brought by Attorneys General of 43 states, Commonwealths and Territories, and by counsel for the Plaintiff Settlement Class entitled In re: Compact Disc Minimum Advertised Price Antitrust Litigation."
Come and get it! If you've bought a CD, cassette, or LP between 1995 and 2000, you've got $5-$20 coming to you...unless too many folks respond, and then it all goes to charity. Either way, it comes out of the MAN's pocket, so get it while it's hot.
First few tracks a bit loungy. Rest of album nice and mellow.
Nice flash animation from MoveOn.
"As George Packer wrote in the New York Times Magazine on Sunday, "If you're a liberal ... why is there no anti-war movement that you'd want to join?"
One might have finally appeared Wednesday, when many of the pillars of progressive politics in America announced they were banding together to oppose a preemptive, unilateral war on Iraq. The Win Without War coalition includes the National Council of Churches, NOW, NAACP, the Sierra Club, MoveOn, Working Assets, Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, Physicians for Social Responsibly and Veterans for Common Sense. Taken together, these groups represent a vast swath of America -- the National Council of Churches alone indirectly represents 50 million congregants -- and they aim to channel their millions of members into antiwar activism. "
A Salon update on the steadily coalescing anti-war movement - one that represents the more mainstream values on the left: that Saddam is a danger who must be disarmed, but only with multilateral support. Now I'm sure those on the right will find some reason to pick them apart - because if they're against war, they must be either godless commies, closeted islamists or sausage-fingered anti-semites - but I suspect the right may have to face up to the fact that there is an emerging mainstream anti-war movement that must be reckoned with rather than ridiculed. This is not the fringe, this is mainstream America.
Just thought I'd provide another pointer to the prolific bloggetry of my former college roomate, John-Paul Pagano. At the urging of my lazy news-aggregating habit, he has implemented an XML feed, and added some extra fanciness to his blog, including some essays and comments!
"Former Vice President Al Gore has decided not to run for president in 2004.
Gore will announce exclusively on CBS' "60 Minutes" tonight at 7 p.m. EST. that he will not run for president. "
This is probably for the best. At least it clears up the field a bit to allow others to step up.
Need to check out Knit cd. Trumpet (is it his slide trumpet or a regular trumpet?), tuba, slide guitar and drums makes an interesting mix.
"What exactly is Froogle?
Froogle is a new service from Google that makes it easy to find information about products for sale online. By focusing entirely on product search, Froogle applies the power of Google's search technology to a very specific task: locating stores that sell the item you want to find and pointing you directly to the place where you can make a purchase. "
Holy crap. This is cool.
"In the last couple of weeks, two of the world's five major record labels have announced plans to change the way they pay their artists. It's no coincidence that the industry is also being investigated by California lawmakers. For years, musicians have complained that they're not paid what they're owed under their contracts, and a cottage industry of accountants and attorneys now earns its living extracting royalty money from record labels. Royalties are the buck or two the artists are supposed to get for each CD sold. From the Marketplace Business of Entertainment Desk, Christian Bordal takes a look at the strange world of royalty auditing."
Marketplace keeps touching on issues I've discussed in this space in the past, so here's another bit on today's show that discusses the mess that is royalty accounting in the music industry. Is it all an honest mistake, as indicated by industry types, or is it "institutional thievery" that takes advantage of the expense of performing royalty audits to keep the artists money out of their hands? The industry claims that "reputable accounting firms" - a term which brings a chuckle from the host - audit the industries books, and it's just not possible for the labels to get away with anything on the scale being alleged. Are the labels starting to reform their own systems out of the goodness of their hearts, or out of a fear of government probing? The section in question starts at 21:30ish.
"The fourth season of HBO's critically acclaimed mob opera, "The Sopranos," ended on Sunday night with an epochal event of destruction that assures with virtual certainty that the series will never, ever be the same again. But since it was a marriage that was rubbed out and not a mobster, many "Sopranos" fans are likely to walk away from the episode feeling disappointed, if not downright betrayed. "
Blogcritics on the season finale and those that complain about a lack of whack.
"viameta"
"Marketplace host David Brancaccio talks with media analyst Marty Kaplan about the struggles of the left to find a media type who's actually interesting enough to get good ratings. "
Minnesota Public Radio's Marketplace comments on this New York Times article discussing MSNBC's search for a "Bill O'Reilly" of their own in order to take on Fox. Media analyst Marty Kaplan discusses the issues of media bias and why the mass-media news is moving to the right. The short version: its easier to be entertaining when you don't have to think about and explain your positions.
The segment in question starts at the 18:39 mark of the show for those that aren't interested in the entire thing.
I mentioned something along these lines earlier this week.
"Here's how I break down the liberal internal debate.
For War1. Saddam is cruel and dangerous.
2. Saddam has used weapons of mass destruction and has never stopped trying to develop them.
3. Iraqis are suffering under tyranny and sanctions.
4. Democracy would benefit Iraqis.
5. A democratic Iraq could drain influence from repressive Saudi Arabia.
6. A democratic Iraq could unlock the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate.
7. A democratic Iraq could begin to liberalize the Arab world.
8. Al Qaeda will be at war with us regardless of what we do in Iraq.
Against War1. Containment has worked for 10 years, and inspections could still work.
2. We shouldn't start wars without immediate provocation and international support.
3. We could inflict terrible casualties, and so could Saddam.
4. A regional war could break out, and anti-Americanism could build to a more dangerous level.
5. Democracy can't be imposed on a country like Iraq.
6. Bush's political aims are unknown, and his record is not reassuring.
7. America's will and capacity for nation building are too limited.
8. War in Iraq will distract from the war on terrorism and swell Al Qaeda's ranks.
At the heart of the matter is a battle between wish and fear. Fear generally proves stronger than wish, but it leaves a taste of disappointment on the tongue. Caution over Iraq puts liberal hawks, who are nothing if not moralists, in the psychologically unsettling position of defending a status quo they despise -- of sounding like the compromisers they used to denounce when it came to Bosnia. Fear means missing the chance for what Ignatieff calls ''a huge prize at the end.''
But wish makes a liberal hawk sound like a Bush hawk, blithely unconcerned about the dangers of American power. The liberal hawk is a liberal -- someone temperamentally prone to see the world as a complicated place.
This dilemma is every liberal's current dilemma. "
An interesting article in the Times a few days ago discusses the quandry many mainstream liberals find themselves in these days. Those who aren't anti-war loony-lefties and can see the benefits of war with Iraq are still conflicted about the possible consequences. The article interviews 5 "liberal hawks": Michael Walzer, Christopher Hitchens, David Rieff, Leon Wieseltier and Paul Berman on their - and my own - dilemma.
"viameta"
"Bob Beauprez today was declared the winner over Mike Feeley in the whisker-close 7th Congressional District race.
The announcement came after 36 days of post-election court fights and recounts.
Beauprez led by 121 votes, down one vote from the results before the recount. "
"Since moving to live near London a few years ago, one of my interests has been the London Underground, the oldest and one of the busiest underground railway networks in the world. I'm not a train spotter by any means, but I find the history and background of London's subterranean railway fascinating.
One of the things I find most interesting is the changing history of the railway, of which there is still much hidden evidence. For example, look through the window as you travel between Tottenham Court Road and Holborn on the Central Line and you'll see a station - where no passengers have alighted since 1932. This used to be British Museum station. Or perhaps you may notice the the tunnel wall change from cast iron tubing to bricks as you travel on the Piccadilly Line between Green Park and Hyde Park Corner. This also used to be a station. Down Street, closed in the same year as British Museum. These stations are often referred to as ghost stations.
There are about 40 abandoned stations on the Underground network along its entire 255 miles (408Km) of trackway - some subsurface and some above ground. Some have vanished without trace whereas others are almost intact, grimy time capsules of the era when they were closed. "
Nifty.
"viameta"
"If the "Sopranos" season overall was somewhat of a disappointment, the fight scenes between Tony and Carmela were worth the price of admission alone: They were more brutal than any whacking and astonishingly gimlet-eyed. The day the divorce is announced is a key moment in the lives of roughly 50 percent of Americans (and Westerners in general), yet it's hard to think of another TV scene that sets its sights on the moment it all comes unglued and never turns away. "
Salon agrees and points to what season 4 was meant to be all about:
"Beyond the clever "two families" conceit, "The Sopranos" has always been in a class of its own when it comes to alarmingly realistic portrayals of middle-class family dynamics. At the beginning of the season, Chase announced that season four would focus on Tony and Carmela's marriage, a somewhat bewildering statement given all that had come before.
Now it seems clear that what Chase meant to say -- but couldn't -- was that season four would focus on the end of Tony and Carmela's marriage (whether or not they stay separated, because that story is far from over.) The only thing missing from last night -- possibly apart from a scene where Meadow stops wanting to sleep with her boyfriend -- was a scene in which the ducks come home to roost. But it now seems like a sure bet they'll be back next season."
"Unless you've built your OS from source (more than likely you have not),the executable applications from the original distribution should never change in content, and/or size. The checksums in this database can quickly tell you if a file has been modified since it was first installed from the distrubution. "
This is a useful tool for helping determine if a system compromise has occured. Sun has provided similar information for a few years through its Fingerprint Database and its proved helpful to me in many situations, and this database extends these benefits to several other operating systems, including FreeBSD, Linux and OS X.
"viaslashdot"
"Picking apart Nelson's column like this lays bare its fringe reasoning and moral triviality, but don't forget that this woman is not on the payroll of some indy socialist rag with a readership of 12, but rather one of the country's major news organizations. "
...the same major news organization that employes Pat Buchanan, Chris Matthews, even Oliver North and Allen Keyes at one point. To claim that their leftist staff members are the only wingnuts on this particular network is silly.
Another fine rant over on Guanubian, but I have to take issue with the continuing claims of a left-wing media bias. While this was certainly true a year or two, or even 6 months ago, anyone who still thinks mainstream media ala MSNBC or CNN is left-wing these days is watching too much Fox News and too little of anything else. EVERY network is chasing Fox to the right as fast as they can. So, while yes, there are still leftover left wing loonies ensconsed in many of these media institutions, they're being more and more marginalized as the networks move to the right.
In any case, trying to paint CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News as "News" - left or right-wing - is a pointless endeavor. Most of them seem to fill most of their days with radio talk-show hosts arguing with each other. Hardly a recipe for enlightenment.
SPOILER ALERT!
I know some of you may not have seen the season finale yet, so if not, stop reading now.
"In the finale, co-written by series creator David Chase, the clash between Tony and Carmela is as powerful as anything ever seen on “The Sopranos,” which is saying a lot. So is this: In her portrayal of a wife betrayed, enraged and despairing, Falco outdid herself. It was an electrifying performance."
I absolutely agree. While some folks I talked to today seemed to feel let down by the lack of a violent ending for someone (besides the two would-be-assassins), as someone who's watched the show fairly religiously since its inception, I don't think I've been as frightened by any performance as by Carmela freaking out on Tony. Thats been building up for 4 years, and it was a truly terrifying thing to behold. I was a little worried at the beginning of this season - I think they got way off track at times, dropping story lines like they drop f-bombs - but Edie Falco's performance made up for a lot. Entertainment Weekly agrees:
"''Whitecaps,'' the 75-minute fourth-season finale, was a lot of things, but at least it wasn't completely boring. In fact, it served as a microcosm for the entire season: occasionally brilliant, frequently tangential, and frustratingly anticlimactic.
But let's start with what was good -- no, make that great -- about the episode. I can sum it up in two words: Edie Falco. I thought she couldn't top last week's performance, but she reached a new summit as Carmela finally called Tony on all of his crap and kicked him out of the house. The breakup point came after a call from Tony's ex-mistress, Irina, informing Carmela that her husband had slept with Irina's one-legged cousin, Svetlana.
Falco summoned profound rage and sorrow, but most miraculously, when Carmela told Tony she'd been fantasizing about Furio, it came out not as a vindictive attempt to arouse jealousy, but as a final, futile plea for communication. "
All-in-all, I'd have to say this is their weakest season so far, but even the weakest Soprano's season is 150% better than most of what's on TV these days. Perhaps purposefully, the many story lines dropped along the way this season, could make for some interesting resolutions next season. Here's hoping.
Now what am I gonna do on Sundays with season 3 of Six Feet Under apparently still several months away (whats with that "SOON" ad? 4 months isn't "SOON")
"Observations focused on the problems of an underdeveloped country, Venezuela, with some serendipity about the world (orchids, techs, science, investments, politics) at large. A famous Venezuelan referred to oil as the devil's excrement. For countries, easy wealth appears indeed to be the sure path to failure. Venezuela might be a clear example of that. "
A great Salon blog dealing first-hand with the mess in Venezuela right now. It's being fairly well ignored by mainstream media, which, considering Venezuela is one of our largest suppliers of oil, should seem odd in our current situation.
"viasalonika"